“For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” (Romans 11:36)
That short verse from Romans, is a prayer of praise for a God whose depths and being are beyond the understanding of a mere human being. A little earlier, the Apostle Paul had exclaimed: “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” (Romans 11:33)
The more Paul had considered the being of God - both in Romans and elsewhere - the vaster he became. Beyond the vast horizons the Apostle was able to survey lay yet more of God. Of course Paul could not fully comprehend God! For anyone to be able to say that they fully understand God is to claim that they are in fact greater than he is. That their finite mind can contain the infinite!
Paul understood that in the end all we can do is describe God, relying on those things God has made known about himself. As the Apostle did this, the more he realised that in the end everything comes from God (he is creator, he is life) and so all belongs to God. God is the highest ‘good’ because moment by moment we owe our very existence to him. The very planet on which we move is the work of his hands, and reflects his beauty. The very fact that we can relate to God, and are reconciled to him, is the work of God the Son.
So it is that Paul could cry out that “from him and through him and to him are all things”! In the end, we owe all that we are to the eternal God.
